A goal of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) program is to develop new technology, new architecture and new methods for settings and configurations in wireless communication systems in order to improve spectral efficiency, reduce latency and better utilize the radio resource to bring faster user experiences and richer applications and services to users with lower costs.
In a typical LTE network, a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) may operate in a number of modes. While in LTE_ACTIVE mode, the WTRU may operate in a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode. DRX mode allows the WTRU to operate in a low power, or sleep mode, for a preset time, and then switch to a full power, or awake, mode for another preset time in order to reduce battery consumption. The DRX cycle lengths are generally configured by the enhanced universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) so that an enhanced Node B (eNB) and the WTRU are synchronized on a consistent sleep and wake-up cycle.
Live traffic situations and WTRU mobility may require frequent adjustment of the DRX cycle length in order to balance system performance, WTRU performance and WTRU power savings. However, relying only on WTRU/E-UTRAN signaling to make the fine DRX cycle adjustment may incur a heavy system and WTRU signaling load.
Implicit rules for DRX cycle length adjustment may be used for smooth LTE_ACTIVE DRX operations to reduce battery power consumption while not effecting system or WTRU performance issues. Implicit rules may assist the implicit DRX cycle length transitions between the WTRU and the E-UTRAN without using excessive explicit signaling.